Expanding 'family leave'

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

That’s the only explanation I can come up with after reviewing
President Clinton’s new bid to expanding the “Family Leave Act” and the
GOP reaction to the plan.

On Saturday, Clinton proposed spending $20 million to help states
find ways to offer taxpayer money to parents who decide they need to
quit working for a period of time due to some personal family situation
— such as a birth or an illness.

Americans should not be forced to choose between their families and
their jobs, Clinton said.

Well, I respectfully disagree. Americans should indeed choose between
work and family. Family, in my opinion, should always come first. In
fact, most people work to support their family. No one — not the
government or anyone else — has the right to force me to subsidize
somebody else’s family. That is immoral.

But I digress.

“Today there are still large numbers of families who need to take
leave
from work but can’t afford to give up the income,” the president said.

You know what? I can’t afford it either. I couldn’t take 12 weeks off
from my job. There’s no government program to help me, there never will
be, and there never should be. So why are other folks treated
differently?

Let me explain. It’s not because Bill Clinton is so compassionate.
It’s not because he really wants to help these folks. There are two
reasons this family leave idea was floated in the first place: Clinton
is always looking for a way to buy new constituents at the taxpayer’s
expense and because he and his ilk understand that creating a larger and
larger dependency class empowers government.

It’s that simple.

But Republicans are too stupid to understand simple politics. They
never oppose bad ideas like this on principled grounds — that they are
unconstitutional, that they rob Peter to pay Paul, that they worsen
problems rather than alleviate them.

No. Republicans go along — afraid that in opposing such plans they
will be labeled cold-hearted, mean-spirited and worse. They compromise.
OK, they say, we’ll vote for this plan as long as you promise we’ll
never pay for family leave.

OK, I promise, says Clinton.

That’s how we got the “Family Leave Act” — a bad piece of
legislation that anyone in their right mind understood would eventually
lead to yet another new taxpayer-funded program forcing those of us who
work to subsidize those who don’t.

Listen to the Republicans whine about getting snookered again.

“The president told us he would never demand that taxpayers pay for
people to leave work,” said Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., chairman of the
House Republican Conference. “Now he wants the states to do it out of
working Americans’ pockets. This is wrong.”

Of course it’s wrong. It was always wrong. But this is what you get
when you compromise on principle, J.C. Get it? When will they ever
learn?

Watts also raised concerns about how the family leave law is being
used.

“Now employers don’t know if someone is permitted to leave for
something serious like breast cancer or something frivolous like an
ingrown toenail,” he said.

No kidding. Isn’t it the case with every federal government program?
Don’t they all seek to micro-manage the lives of millions of Americans
like the folks in Washington were omniscient gods? That’s why the
federal government has no legitimate role in making policies like these
— whether they cost taxpayers anything or not.

Of course, the administration claims that in 85 percent of cases,
family leave does not cost employers anything. If that is the case,
there should be no need for the legislation. Employers would graciously
grant their employees’ requests if they weren’t costing anything.

Clinton went so far as to suggest he is actually saving businesses
money with the plan.

“In fact, in many cases it has actually helped save them money by
cutting down on turnover and reducing the expense of training new
workers,” Clinton said.

He has such business acumen, it’s incredible. How does he do it?
Remember, this is a guy who has never worked in a real job — meaning
one outside of government — in his life. Yet, he knows what’s best for
millions of businesses out there across America. His arrogance never
ceases to amaze me.

But what amazes me even more is how many times he can pull the wool
over the eyes of the so-called “opposition party” and get his way with a
Republican Congress.

Another perfect illustration of why the two-party system in America
is dead.